


A Brief Study of Vulcan Public Health Concerns

by sixbeforelunch



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 11:09:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13657782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixbeforelunch/pseuds/sixbeforelunch
Summary: Vulcans are unerringly logical creatures who never do anything foolish.In a pig's eye!





	A Brief Study of Vulcan Public Health Concerns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/gifts).



> A last minute treat, and so unbeta'ed. I apologize for any errors.

"So this is Vulcan checkers?" McCoy said, taking a seat across from Spock. They were in a crowded bar on Starbase 17, getting some much needed R&R. McCoy was surprised that Spock had come out to join the rest of the crew like a normal person, much less deigned to grace the bar with his presence, but even he had to take a break from the calculations sometimes.

Spock looked up. "It has been described that way," he said.

It certainly looked like checkers. A flat board, areas of alternating color. Although, the colored spaces were hexagonal instead of square, and there were three colors, not two. But the game pieces were still flat discs. They were mostly black, but on one side, they had colored dots, either orange or red.

"Okay, let's play," McCoy said. He looked at Spock, who was lining up the game pieces on his side of the board. "Er, Spock. Don't you have those upside down?" Spock had the colored dots facing down. If they both played like that, all the game pieces would be identical.

"Not at all," Spock said. "In _ohwarec_ the player is expected to be able to track their game pieces by memory, without relying on visual cues." He looked up, a smug little smile (Spock could call it what he wanted, it was a smile) playing on his lips. "If you would prefer to play by color, as the children do..."

McCoy snorted. "Yes, Spock, I think that might be best." Track the game pieces by memory...computers, the lot of them.

Spock began flipping the game pieces over. "Of course. Vulcan games often have to be adapted to accommodate the limitations of Humans."

McCoy ordered a drink from a passing server. "You know, a few weeks ago when we swung by Vulcan to pick up Doctor M'Benga and that new lab equipment, I applied to work at a hospital on Vulcan for a day. I like to do that when I can. Different patient population, different environment. Keeps the skills sharp." His drink came with surprising speed. He took a small sip. "They let me shadow a doctor at one of the urgent care clinics in Shi'kahr. T'Mer, her name was. Lovely woman. You could learn a thing or two from her about manners."

Spock raised an eyebrow. McCoy took another small sip of whiskey.

"I tell you, Spock, if you ever really want to get a feel for a species, talk to the healers. They've seen it all. Twice. I told T'Mer about all of the Vulcans I've met who like to tell me about how logical, how refined, how civilized and intelligent their species is. So much more reasonable than the rest of us poor creatures running around the galaxy. She didn't exactly laugh, but she did tell me the statistics on the number of psychologically healthy adult Vulcans who come into urgent care with a foreign body lodged in an orifice every year."

Spock frowned. "A number, Doctor, which is undoubtedly smaller than it's counterpart on Earth."

"Smaller, maybe, but still non-zero." McCoy grinned broadly. "Still quite a bit more than zero, Mr. Spock."

Spock's eyebrow climbed a bit higher. His mouth opened very slightly, and closed again.

McCoy began arranging his pieces, colored side up. "I'm playing orange, right?"


End file.
